The staff at GamePolitics would like to wish all of our loyal readers a safe and Happy New Year.

I hope that 2011 will be the year when..

..the highest court in the land rules that video games are protected under the first amendment and that only parents have the right to control what their children play.

..that the FCC protects consumers from usage-based schemes and content services (Netflix, Xbox Live, PlayStation Network, Steam, etc.) from broadband service providers.

..that DRM becomes less popular with developers and publishers.

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According to a Geek.com report, one clever hacker has broken the digital rights management layer of Windows Phone 7 Marketplace. The hacker shows the Marketplace hack in the video to the left, but has not released details (or software) publicly at this point. Hypothetically the hack could be used to strip the DRM from apps and upload them to any device.

Microsoft has not commented on this newfound security hole in its DRM, but one would expect they will issue updates to try and plug it.

According to this Reddit post (with screen captures), the DRM checks on several Ubisoft games have been relaxed a little. The post shows screen caps of Assassin’s Creed 2 and Splinter Cell: Conviction being played offline and working fine. The aforementioned titles previously required a constant connection to the internet to run even while playing single-player. This newfound functionality was apparently enabled with some recent patches.

According to the Reddit poster, the games no longer pause instantly if a connection is lost. Of course you will still have to validate the games the first time you play them (and will still require a connection when you first launch them), but - if these screencaps are true - it is a welcomed step in the right direction. Read More

According to security firm Lookout, a Trojan called "Gemini" has been found in multiple games purchased via "third-party Chinese app stores." Apps such as Monkey Jump 2, Sex Positions, President vs. Aliens, City Defense and Baseball Superstars 2010 are affected, though only if purchased from a "third-party Chinese App Store." The original versions of the games from the Google Android Market are clean, according to the security firm.

"Though the intent of this Trojan isn't entirely clear, the possibilities range from setting up a malicious mobile ad network to creating an Android botnet," the company said.

I wanted to use the last post of 2010 to take a quick look back and talk a bit about what we’re working on for early next year.

2010 has been a year of tremendous growth for the PlayStation Social Media program – average weekly page views have nearly doubled (to about 2 million), our Twitter followship has multiplied by a factor of more than 5 (to about 573K), and – this is the crazy one – Facebook fans have multiplied by over 10x (to 7.6 million). In a not-unrelated development, we added Sid and Rey to our team which have enabled us to be more responsive via those channels, place our videos on the front pages of IGN and Gametrailers, as well as publish roughly 10 extra stories per week. We were also named a Top 5 entertainment blog by Technorati, which tracks such things.

I’m also particularly proud of our PlayStation.Blog Share feature, which launched last Spring. Many tens of thousands you have participated, and more than 50 ideas have been enacted to date. While the Social Media team can’t take credit for those (we don’t actually make these things happen), you should know that having all your ideas in one place has made it much easier for people throughout the company to know what you’re thinking. I’ve actually sat in on meetings where ideas submitted to share were pored over, one at a time. That’s the whole point, right?

Host: Larry Hryb, Xbox LIVE’s Major Nelson (Xbox LIVE ) (Twitter)  
Co-host : e (Xbox LIVE ) (Twitter)  
Co-host : lollip0p (Xbox LIVE) (Twitter)
Co-Host: Stepto (Xbox LIVE) (Twitter)

We choose of favorite games of 2010
Name the Game
Xbox 101
and more....

Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) admits that overturning or repealing the new net neutrality rules put in place earlier this month by the Federal Communications Commission will be difficult because the Democrats still control the Senate and the White House.

Hutchinson has been one of the most vocal opponents of the new regulations on broadband and wireless service providers. Though she has pledged to put forth a resolution to "disapprove the legislation" she admits that she faces an uphill battle in both houses and an inevitable veto from the president should it make it that far.

"As long as the Democrats are in control of the Senate and the president believes this is the way to govern, we will have a hard time shutting it down," Hutchison told host David Asman during a Fox Business Channel interview. "But I hope enough Democrats will come alongside us in the Senate and Republicans in the House and say this is wrong." Read More

Here is the last Xbox LIVE Countdown to 2011 deal;

Hollywood casting director Brigitte Burdine died today in a tragic hit-and-run accident as she was walking home from a late-night date with her boyfriend, according to LA Weekly. Anyone with information about the crime should call LAPD investigator Martha Dominguez at (213) 473-0234.

Brigitte was regarded as a great person and one of the most important casting directors in the video game industry. Her credits include such games as ModNation Racers, Infamous, Killzone 2, the SOCOM series, World of Warcraft, the upcoming Mortal Kombat game, and many other important gaming contributions. You can read about her contributions to the video game and television industry on IMDb.

Kotaku offers some personal thoughts from people that knew Brigitte best. Read More

A 19 year old South Korean boy died after playing a game for more than 12 hours, according to a Daily News report (citing a Korean Times report). According to the report, a young man identified only by the surname "Moon" arrived at "PC Bang," an Internet cafe in the city of Ulsan, at around 2 a.m. on Dec. 27. He spent eight hours playing an "online action game" then went home to have a meal. Moon returned to PC Bang at 10:30 a.m. and resumed playing the game. At around 12:00 he collapsed and was rushed to a nearby hospital where doctors were unable to save him. Read More

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